‘Kon-Tiki’ to launch Goteborg fest

Scandinavia's biggest fest to screen 450 pix

Espen Sandberg and Joachim Ronning’s “Kon-Tiki” will open the Goteborg Film Festival, which unspools Jan. 25 to Feb. 4.

The pic, centering on Thor Heyerdahl’s voyage across the Pacific Ocean on a raft, will screen out of competition. The fest will also screen Heyerdahl’s “Kon-Tiki,” which won an Oscar for best doc in 1951.

Sandberg and Ronning’s film, which preemed at the Toronto Film Festival, is Norway’s submission in the foreign-language film category of the Oscars.

Fest’s special focus will be on Chilean films, and will include Raoul Ruiz’s last film “Into the Night,” and pics by the new generation of Chilean helmers, among them Pablo Larrain’s “No” and Sebastian Silva’s “The Maid.”

The complete fest program will be unveiled Jan. 8, including eight Nordic titles competing for the Dragon Award, worth Swedish krona 1 million ($115,000).

The fest, already Scandinavia’s biggest, is getting bigger. It will screen 450 films and the audience capacity will increase by 25% to 250,000 tickets.

The Nordic Film Market will run alongside the fest from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3.